ABSTRACT
It’s funny I forgot this year. 1 Ash Wednesday is still my mother’s favorite religious day. Like much in the Catholic tradition, it is a day whose symbolism is deeply rooted in the earth. From ashes we come, and to ashes we shall return. We were Catholic. For my grandmother, it would have been unforgivable not to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday. In fact, both my grandmothers used to go to Mass every day. In our Irish Catholic family, religion was a place where women had some power. I guess it had to do with that earthy thing. Blood and bodily pain were women’s domains, both dirty and awesome, animal and Godlike at once. It was known that women were especially connected to God.
